Elephant Tales

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Last week, we studied Scotland, and had a grand time presenting our research at our local homeschool group's International Fair.

Here's a pic of Blue and Pink in their Scottish attire. (Just for fun.)

(His kilt is a little short, but hey... it's not like I buy skirts to fit my son, people. We adapted from something Pink had in her closet.)

Okay, anyway.....

THIS week, we are studying Italy.

Today's activity was cooking an Italian food.

Now, I know what you're thinking.....but no, we did NOT make pizza!

We made gnocchi!!

Definition: In the culinary arts, the word Gnocchi refers to a type of Italian dumplings made from potatoes and flour. The word "gnocchi" means "dumplings" in Italian.

I also wanted the kids to make their own pasta sauce, but we kinda cheated on that part. Rather than begin from whole tomatoes, we cut to the chase and used canned tomatoes.

Along with tomatoes, we added some various spices, and a bit of sugar.

( I've been making my own sauces like this for awhile now, as part of our gluten-free diet. I've got a great homemade BBQ sauce that goes wonderfully over some of Daddy Elephant's grilled ribs, which are awesome!!.....but back to Italy.)

Added the spices.....

Stirred things up.

Then we covered the sauce and simmered it for about two hours.

Meanwhile, we got the potatoes going for the gnocchi. I like to let the short people help with most safe steps of cooking projects, so we used the sink they could easily reach to wash the potatoes.

Mama Elephant did the paring, despite Blue's reassurances that HE could do it for me.

Um, not this time, kiddo. :)

Then, we boiled!

I actually made a double recipe of the gnocchi.

Which turned out nicely, since Daddy Elephant needed something to take to work for lunch break tonight!

Meanwhile, I gathered the other ingredients needed for the gnocchi.

Eggs, salt, and flour.

Time lapse!!

The boiled potatoes go into the fridge to cool before mashing.

Meanwhile, the Elephants watched a few Youtube videos. We watched the history of pizza (while a man made some pizza; shocking.) We watched a how-to video on both spinach gnocchi and potato gnocchi. Which I liked, since the kids were more confident when we got to the 'shaping' part later on. They also watched an episode of Traveling With Kids featuring the country of (you guessed it!) Italy. We talked about what they'd seen and learned over our dinner.

Gnocchi time!

We mashed the potatoes up, added the eggs, then I added the flour.

(I was pulling double duty on mixing and picture taking, so I missed some shots.)

The finished dough.... I should have let it rest for a few minutes, and I will next time.

But at this point, we were racing the clock to have dinner with Daddy before he left for evening shift.

Let's roll! Gnocchi gets rolled into dough snakes,

then cut into small pieces,

and then shaped.

Daddy got into the action for this part!

Roll the gnocchi on the fork tines to make the indentions that 'catch' the pasta sauce.

Look at that focus on her face!

This was a super fun family activity!! ﻿

Our sauce, plus the sautéed garlic and meat that daddy helped me cook up and add.﻿

Gnocchi goes in.......

It's done when it floats!

Time to say grace and dig in!! ﻿

Pink's first taste...﻿

Pretty plate of hard work and learning! ﻿

Blue though it was.......

delicious!

Pink loved it, too!

I've never made gnocchi before today.

Before our Italy study, Gnocchi was just the name of Chef Pasketti's cat on Curious George.

(Yep, I'm a mom!!)

It was a LOT of fun, and it honestly makes me want to try making pasta, next!!

Try making gnocchi at your house!!

HOMEMADE GNOCCHI

﻿

Two medium boiled potatoes, mashed (equal to 1 cup)

salt

2-3 eggs

2 cups all purpose (GF) flour

patience

That last ingredient is needed if kiddos are helping. (LOL) Boil potatoes until tender enough to be pierced with a fork, but still firm. Around 15 minutes. Drain and cool. Mash them, and measure 1 cup of potatoes into a large bowl. Add 2 cups of (GF) all purpose flour. Add 2 eggs, and a good dose of salt. Mix together until a dough forms. I had a bit of trouble with this part, since we use GF flour. I found a third egg plus about 3T of water made the dough perfect. Gather the dough into a ball, and let rest (covered) for about 20 minutes. Divide the dough into 1/4s and roll out into "snakes" about 1/2in thick. Cut the dough into short lengths, about 1/2in long. (Ours were all kinds of sizes, with small hands helping.) Press the gnocchi pieces onto the back of a fork, rolling downward over the tines to create grooves.

Set gnocchi gently into a pan of salted, rapid-boiling water. They are done when they rise; around 3-5 minutes.

Cover with sauce of your choice, and some cheese. (If you get to eat cheese!! lol) *This recipe makes 4 servings. Enjoy!!

Friday, April 4, 2014

Our conversation with B.E. about his Autism has been a quiet one until recently. Sure, he has attended months worth of therapies since his diagnosis. We called that "Going to see Miss So-and-So" each week. Occasionally, we'd throw around acronyms in front of Blue, but not with any explanation; he never asked for one, either.

With Blue Elephant being diagnosed at the age of 5, we didn't feel he was ready to grasp the concept of Autism, nor did we see much in his demeanor that would indicate he understood the extent of his differences from his peers.

Over the past 6 months or so, that's begun to change and evolve in front of our eyes. Daily life is hard in an Autism household. You're constantly dancing to keep up with the next twist and turn thrown your way. Any given day might hold beauty and laughter, (we strive to make joy a point of practice in our household) and suddenly dissolve into tears or frustrated miscommunication. B.E. has meltdowns when overwhelmed, like any ASD kiddo. He also marches to the beat of his OWN drum, regardless of what the "rest of the group" may or may not be doing.

It was after one such "adventurous" Sunday at church that Mommy and Daddy Elephant decided B.E. was ready to "be informed". We sat him down with a fun little E-Book about a boy with Autism. He scrolled through the pages, reading aloud with clarity....and growing excitement. Almost every sentence was followed with an exclamation of "Hey! I do/like/am that, too!"

The moment that brought tears to my eyes was his completely natural comment of "I guess I must have Autism, too!"

I wanted to be sure he grasped the idea of what it was and was not.

"It's not something 'wrong' with you, B.E., you do understand that? It's a way of your brain working differently than others around you. You can't tell by looking at you that you have Autism. But, you know that it affects your life everyday. It's part of what makes conversations hard to follow, and why it's hard for you to look people in the eye. It's also part of why you love quoting movies so much!"

He nodded, and smiled.

"Mommy has something kind of like that, too."

"You DO?!"

"Well, I don't have Autism, but I have what is called Meniere's Disease. That means my balance gets off and I can get dizzy very easily. Now, you can't tell that by looking at me on the outside, can you?"

"No..."

"But you know what? Meniere's affects me every day. It means I have to be careful what I eat and don't eat (which was a great lead in to talk about his GF/CF/SF diet), how much rest I get, and even how I move my body around. It doesn't mean I am 'bad' or 'weird' for having Meniere's, it just makes me different than other people."

I could tell by his face and his bright eyes that he totally 'got' it.

"Do you have any questions about your Autism?"

"Yes. Can I go tell Pink that I have it?!?!"

And off he dashed, excitedly hollering up the stairs to his sister for her to come down and hear about his Autism.

Hearing, understanding, accepting.

In 10 minutes.

Society could learn a lot from that little 7 year old.

Since that day, we've had an ongoing conversation about Autism around here. It comes up in everyday life, and we chat about it.

Today, Blue had a writing assignment for schoolwork. He had chosen his little sister, Pink, as the subject of a comparing/contrasting paragraph between she and himself.

There it was, smack in the middle of favorite colors and hair color.

"Pink doesn't have Autism, but I do."

He knows it makes him different.

He knows he's a stand-out kiddo.

He also sees his Autism as a part of who he is, on the same level that being a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy describes him.